TYRE (Lebanon): Problem with mines? Abu Ali Ahmed may be able to help. The former guerrilla is a one-man demining operation who says he has cleared hundreds of unexploded munitions in south Lebanon since the month-long conflict ended on August 14.
Ali Ahmed trained with former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah fedayeen when they ruled the roost in south Lebanon, much to the displeasure of local residents.
But now things have changed. Twenty years on, this freelance deminer is welcomed by farmers whose fields are strewn with unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs.
The 46-year-old’s frail appearance belies the steel within. He says he has already defused hundreds of Israeli munitions in the Tyre area of the country.
During the 34-day conflict pitting Israel’s forces against the Hezbollah militia in July and August, the Jewish state used cluster bombs which sprayed thousands of small but deadly munitions across wide areas.
“The Israelis have perfected their bombs. They explode at the slightest movement,” says Ali Ahmed as he leaves a citrus grove in the Maaliyeh area south of the port city of Tyre.
He is carefully carrying a box of some 50 bombs, which he places beside others containing 120 more.
In 1982, when Israel invaded south Lebanon to oust Fatah fighters, “the Israeli ships fired cluster shells containing 40 bombs,” Ali Ahmed says. “Now they contain more than 400.”
The United Nations estimates that 13 people have been killed and dozens wounded by such sub-munitions since the ceasefire took hold, and that demining could take at least a year.
When he was young, the former Palestinian guerrilla underwent intensive training at Fatah camps in Algeria and Tunisia. Now he is putting that training to good use.
“I do my work calmly and with a cool head,” he says. “I neutralise bombs by removing the detonator.”
Most of the bombs he has defused were in trees. The munitions, some of which resemble golf balls, will explode if the slightest pressure is exerted on them.
In addition to bomblets, Ali Ahmed says he has also made safe 22 unexploded shells fired by Israeli tanks during the conflict.
“When I have a batch of about 150 devices I’ve defused, I call the Lebanese army and hand them over,” he says.
“I do this work for nothing, just for the security of residents. But some people insist on paying me between 20 and 30 dollars a day to demine their fields.”—AFP
TYRE (Lebanon): Problem with mines? Abu Ali Ahmed may be able to help. The former guerrilla is a one-man demining operation who says he has cleared hundreds of unexploded munitions in south Lebanon since the month-long conflict ended on August 14.
